Enter and view: Jennifer's Lodge Care Home

Healthwatch Lewisham carried out an Enter and View visit to Jennifer's Lodge, a residential care home for older people living with dementia and adults with disabilities. Overall feedback from residents and staff was very positive. Residents described the home as clean, welcoming and supportive, and spoke highly of staff and management. Residents generally felt safe, listened to and well supported with personal care, daily living and healthcare needs. 

The home was found to provide a comfortable and homely environment with personalised bedrooms, communal spaces, a large garden and a range of activities. Residents particularly valued outings, social activities and celebrations such as birthdays. However, some residents expressed a desire for a wider variety of activities, greater involvement in daily choices such as meals, and more flexibility in how they spent their time. One resident also noted that staff interactions were not always consistent and reported occasional feelings that some staff were kinder than others. 

Staff described a positive workplace culture with strong teamwork, supportive management and good training opportunities. They demonstrated awareness of residents' individual, cultural and health needs and spoke positively about supporting people living with dementia. However, staff highlighted the emotional demands of dementia care and expressed interest in additional face-to-face training opportunities, particularly around dementia support and managing challenging behaviour. 

Healthwatch concluded that Jennifer's Lodge provides good-quality, person-centred care with high levels of resident satisfaction. Recommendations focused on increasing activity options and resident choice, improving consistency in staff-resident interactions, addressing minor environmental and safety issues, enhancing communication tools for people living with dementia, strengthening feedback processes and expanding staff development opportunities.